The use of safety garments comprising retroreflective printing reduces the risk of accidents, especially for persons in certain professions such as for example firefighters and paramedics, as well as for athletes. Commercial products suitable for use with reflective garments generally consist of a single color. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,985 to Bingham, U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,101 to Li and U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,746 to Billingsley et al., disclose launderable retroreflective grey-colored products.
A number of patents disclose processes for producing colored effects and printed effects, as well as reflectivity. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,962,121 to Mori discloses a retroreflective structure capable of exhibiting a decorative rainbow-colored effect during both daytime and nighttime. U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,461 to Ogi discloses a process for transferring a retroreflective pattern onto a fabric. U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,562 to Harper et al. discloses retroreflective images formed on garments and other substrates. U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,105 to Orensteen et al. discloses a thermal printing system and a colorant/binder for printing frangible, retroreflective sheeting material. U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,613 to Olsen discloses the printing of designs or emblems on garments, where the design comprises a monolayer of microspheres, and a first printing of a first color layer with a silk-screening system. When the prints of the first color are dried, subsequent colors can be printed through the same technique until the design on the layer of microspheres is completed. A similar patent for decorating textile surfaces, U.S. Pat. No. 5,679,198 to Olsen et al., discloses a multi-step printing of many colors prepared with a polyester resin and an isocyanate hardener, dried before printing the following color. Also in U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,790 to Olsen et al., the same silk-screening multi-color printing technique is used with a system of colors made of polyester resin hardened with isocyanate. Many other United States patents disclose processes for producing retroreflective materials, including U.S. Pat. No. 2,231,139 to Reininger, U.S. Pat. No. 2,422,256 to Phillippi, U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,346 to Rowland, U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,426 to Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,072 to Coburn, Jr. et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,023 to Bradshaw et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,400 to Bernard et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,636 to Nilsen et al. discloses a high speed, low cost process for producing sheets patterned with drawings and emblems using a rotary screen printing system with cylinders, and hardening with UV lamps.
There does not appear, however, to be a practical process for producing a printed retroreflective product for fashion garments using designs containing one or more than one color. While, processes using silk-screen printing with one water-based color or solvent-based colors have been proposed, these processes are unfeasible for reproducing fashion designs with many colors upon a retroreflective material.
Additionally, many patents disclose the use of screen-printing technology, such as for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,630 to Onishi et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,790 to Olsen et al., among others. With this screen-printing technology, however, it is impossible to print designs on garments comprising many colors while maintaining design and color accuracy on a layer of microspheres to produce retroreflecting materials. The same is true of a rotary screen-printing system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,636 to Nilsen et al. Therefore, there remains a need for a process for printing retroreflecting products comprising one or more than one color, with a high production speed, production flexibility and without producing significant amounts of pollution.